Eternal Emerald Dragon

Chapter 925 - 924 - Cracks in the Wall

A large castle sat on a small hill overlooking a stocky village. There were no frills or waste but it was very basic at its foundation. It had been built for functionality and endurance but only recently had more artistic buildings begun to appear.

They stood out due to the comparison but the castle loomed over all in the same design as the city.

It had sturdy bulwarks, towers with narrow windows, and woven into all of the materials were the best formations or weavings as could be procured in the current world.

The Dark Orchid Kingdom had moved its capital to the Celestial Fields but it was still only a few thousand years settled in the new place. Compared to the ancestral lands, it looked far poorer due to the simplistic designs of the city yet the quality was far above those places.

Peak grade 6 items were difficult to find in mass quantities in the Heaven Realm lands but in the Celestial Fields, it was like it could be everywhere as a common stone.

Prince Kyle stood at his window looking down at the signs of new construction and sighed. His nobles were idiots. They had serious work but had begun to forget their purpose.

He stroked his well kept beard as his simpler robes of cultivation adorned him in his room. They were simple dark silk but grade 7 robes even then. They could easily take a hit from a Shard Tier Immortal but only a few of such attacks.

Fiends were troublesome enemies so it helped to always be prepared.

He stepped away from the simple window and returned to a desk with some piles of jade slips and scrolls laid out on it. The desk was made of stone due to the fact that wood was very sparse at the time of construction. He had seen no need to replace it.

Like his father, he had focused on their goal of fencing in their enemy so they could not spread like they had in the Heaven Realm lands long ago. Lord Frey had given them the chance and they grasped it!

Unfortunately, peace made people start to take it for granted. Even those that fought the Fiends felt they could indulge more as time passed. It was hard to argue as being constantly on alert did not work when there was no war.

The Fiends raided the borders but that was all. Compared to their old methods, it was a far cry from the brutal and horrific attacks of old.

Prince Kyle did not like it and was getting supremely tired of not only his nobles shirking their duties but his former allies as well! The border powers still did their jobs, but many had become lax!

He did not understand it! His own mother had been taken by the blasted Fiends and they had also lost so many to those monsters. They could not wipe them out as they wished to but they should not have brain damage to the extent of forgetting the past so quickly!

He felt a headache gather at his brow before a pair of gentle hands began to massage his shoulders.

"I told you to knock at least before doing that." He had definitely been alone in his rooms! His bed was large but not ornate yet neatly made. His bath was empty and no servant had been anywhere, yet now someone was massaging him!

A small laugh was heard and it did draw a smile from him.

"You are going to get your face stuck, my Prince, if you keep scowling like that. You cannot control the world." The soft voice further soothed him but he then grasped the hands on his shoulders.

He felt the smooth skin but also the calluses. He slowly pulled the hands until a lithe woman in leather armor covered in a black cloak smiled down at him. She had close cropped brown hair and pink eyes.

Her skin was pale but it was an application of a pill to make her draw less attention. Even as he watched, her skin darkened until it became a deep tan once more that he knew. He noticed her dagger hilt was damaged and frowned.

"What happened?" She narrowed her eyes before freeing her hands to tap his nose gently.

"No more work. Relax first." Prince Kyle sighed but did not resist as he was pulled off to the bed.

The sunlight had been at mid-morning but it seemed to fly to sunset before the pair stopped relaxing. Tension had indeed been released and Prince Kyle felt more focused but happier as well.

"You should accept my proposal." His hand was intertwined with hers as they lay in bed but she did not answer him. He knew she would not but he also knew he would keep asking.

"I wish I could say I brought you good news but your fears were well founded." A different kind of sigh left Kyle but he nodded as he sat up and looked at her more seriously.

It was a tad distracting to look at her as the sheen on her skin and the complete lack of clothes were not helping at all!

Still, her face was serious and he remained the same.

"How bad?" She then touched a ring on her right hand and a vile artifact appeared. It was cracked and clearly useless junk now but he could feel it!

Neither dared touch it directly but she then touched the ring only to it to put it back.

"It was in the possession of the leader of Fort Atride. He was still human but suddenly had no bottlenecks compared to his previous history. While that is not exactly unusual in the Celestial Fields, it has tapered off immensely in the last millennium." It had been only a rumor. It was hardly the first nor unique but in the current circumstances it had not been proven either.

There were always cultivators that got desperate and accepted the empty promise of the Fiends. Fools always thought they would be the exception but after Lind Frey and the Sanctuary Empire, the traitors had dropped dramatically.

There was no surge of pride in the people, but pragmatism. Lind Frey's techniques stripped any spy, thrall, or other connection to the Fiends of any chance of hiding away.

As they transitioned to the Celestial Fields, however, things became complicated. Lind Frey pulled back from the political stage to found his Clan and while he still supplied tools and weapons to the powers fencing in the Fiends, the sheer limits of materials became a problem.

Peak grade 6 had once been more than enough in the Heaven Realm lands but in the Celestial Fields, it was grade 7 that ruled. The reservoir of materials, however, was limited and the demand in all sectors drained it fairly dry.

The risk, in other words, became feasible once the limit was tested enough.

Cracks in their defenses were forming once again and the rate was increasing! How long before the Fiends breached the walls?!

Prince Kyle got up and donned his robes once more but only to pace the bedroom. The pink eyes followed him but said nothing as she let him think.

"How many more rumored connections are there?" She contemplated the information but then frowned.

"Just in our own kingdom, I am afraid quite a few unconfirmed rumors exist but I think only a handful might lead to something. The troubling issue is not even our allies but the powers near us." Kyle turned and narrowed his eyes at her.

She then touched her ring and a new insignia appeared. It was covered in some blood but he recognized the Branch on a gold field easily enough.

"The Sylvan Kingdom's spies?" She nodded at his words.

"They are not allied with the Fiends but working on their own agenda that seems opposed to other machinations. They are creating opportunities for the Fiends to slip through our own defenses due to bribes and other temptation." Kyle frowned as he recalled almost 30 years previously when the prince there became an Immortal.

The distinct lack of demons, beasts, and other non-human powers had stood out then. Since that time, the Sylvan Kingdom had oddly risen in strength but no one could quite pin down why.

Yet the woman in front of him confirmed it was not the Fiends doing it.

"The new powers?" She nodded and he tilted his head back to close his eyes in concentration.

The 'new' powers were the ones ascending from beyond the reach of the Fiends in the old war. They were not weak by any means but far more independent. They had levels of power on par with the former Alliance but that was the key difference.

While the old bonds had faded, they could still bind together against outsiders that threatened them. Better the rival you knew than the stranger coming after you.

Still, not all of them were overtly antagonistic and were peacefully trading or settling lands but it would take millenia to try and catch up to the former Alliance powers. Better to try and take a shortcut in many cultivator's eyes.

Further, their own rivalries pitted them against each other still. Thus any new alliance would open up feuds unexpectedly.

It was all becoming chaotic to keep track of things but the Dark Orchid Kingdom was left alone. The powers directly against the Fiends were generally left alone but individuals could do more damage trying to profit on the side.

Bribes to ignore carriages or people was allowing the Fiends to get through too!

"I will have to take action. We cannot allow–" Kyle was about to keep talking when he felt a chill down his spine. He rolled to the side as a dagger sliced the air he had just been in! He whirled back to find the nude form of his lover crouched in the strike position.

Still, that was not what made his eyes go wide. What really disturbed him was the ash gray skinned man now bleeding to death! A Fiend! He had fought them enough to know them on sight but how had they gotten inside his rooms?!

"Damn it…" Her voice shook him awake as the dark blood began to heal to his naked eyes. Lightning danced on his arm as it lashed out and struck the Fiend. It floundered like a fish out of water until its body withered and died!

He then raced to her side but a black poison was spreading from a single cut on her cheek!

Her eyes were already going pale.

"Beloved, I wanted to marry you, I did. I just couldn't because I am not–" He held her carefully as he put a finger over he lips.

"Damn the rules. I already told my father you were the only one for me, Alice. You are not allowed to die!" Tears misted his eyes over as he quickly went through his ring but was shocked to find no sign of the artifact he needed.

All the powers had artifacts from Lind Frey for the very purpose of negating Fiend poisoning! Why was it missing?!

"Guards! Get a healer now! Give me a Frey artifact this instant!" He screamed but no one answered. It was only then that he realized they should have come running before he glanced out his window to see smoke rising from the city!

The Fiends had come in force!